Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Mustard that means it

Sorry, no picture. But it just looks like grainy mustard, so you're not missing much. I've been meaning to try making my own mustard for a while, and last week I finally got around to it. I got this method from Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. This mustard is very potent. It will put hair on your chest and back while simultaneously clearing out your sinuses. I plan on experimenting in the future with trying to tame it. I might try adding some honey or sugar to it, or I might just try decreasing the amount of mustard seeds while leaving the wet ingredients the same. Or maybe replacing some of the vinegar with water. I'll keep you updated. This is good mustard, mind you. It's just that sometimes you don't really want a kick in the throat with your veggie burger. It made a very exciting celery remoulade, and it was great stirred into a potato-kale skillet. It's also an excellent topping for homemade veggie burgers. Once I perfect my mustard technique, I think it would be a nice gift for people. I might experiment with replacing some of the beer with whiskey or another spirit for even more character. Then there are all the add-ins you can do: garlic, caramelized onion, cranberry, etc. I'm looking forward to it. The only thing is that this makes more mustard than I usually go through in a year, so I'll have to make smaller recipes and/or figure out a way to work more mustard into my diet. (Or give samples to my friends.)

Mustard
Makes about 1 1/2 cups.
1/4 cup whole yellow mustard seeds
1/4 cup whole black mustard seeds
1/2 cup St. Arnold's Christmas Ale or other good beer
1/2 cup malt vinegar
Pinch of salt (I might increase to 1/4 or 1/2 tsp next time)

Combine all ingredients in a glass jar and seal tightly for two days. Puree in blender until desired consistency is reached. (You won't be able to get smooth mustard this way, but you can control how grainy it is.)

1 comment:

mollyjade said...

Ooo! That mustard recipe has been on my to do list for a long time. Good to know it's strong.